Welcome to

I might be cheap for writing about this, but are headphones getting way too expensive or what? I have a nice pair of bose head phones. I have to admit that the sound is rich and vibrant. But, i’m not sure if they were worth the price i paid for them. I paid around $160 for my bose head phones. I got them cause i heard that the sound quality is amazing. The only problem is that i don’t want to look like a DJ when i go workout. I don’t like carry them with me on my business trips because it’s big and clunky. The free headphones that came with my ipod and iphone are fine.

I think our consumer rich economy has created markets for luxury goods. What mean by luxury is that it’s over priced. We don’t need any of this stuff. Let’s say that a MP3 player is a neccessity. I don’t think it is, but let’s just say that it is for argument sake. Why do i need to buy an overpriced ipod? Isn’t a sansa player just as good at half the price? Something to think about guys.

Like i mentioned in my earlier post, i was at best buy to check up on a few video games. I also looked around at laptops and digital cameras. I just love looking the new the tech gear and comparing prices. The internet is the best place to find these type of deals. You will save ten and sometimes hundreds of dollars if you buy tech stuff online. But if you’re going to buy retail, costco or best buy is your best bet. Circuit city and other chains are a rip off.

I was comparing the prices of games and it got me thinking. Why are certain games prices the way they are. Did the marketing team over at the distributor company do test studies. Do they have focus groups? I think the tech industry makes a lot of money off of consumer ignorance. I was also looking at laptops and i saw two toshiba laptops that were priced differently. One was 799 dollars and the other was 599. Both systems have the same type of processor. One had less ram and less hard disk space. Guess which one that was? You are wrong if you guess the cheaper one. The 599 dollar toshiba laptop was a better computer. I wonder if they sell the higher priced inferior model to unsuspecting newbies.

Nintendo Wii announced that they are coming out with motion sensor controls that are more sensitive. This will make game play a lot smoother and more realistic. The latest rage in video gaming is music games. The popularity of Guitar Hero and Rock Band have made the first person shooter a thing of the past. Well, not really, but you get my point.

There are a lot of tech types who made mods using the motion sensors of the wii mote. Some of the hacks turned out pretty good. You can use the wiimote and sensor to create a virtual world on the tv set. Spacial clarity and location can really make it a true interactive virtual environment. Game developers should rush to start making games that are more high tech and before you know it, it’ll be like we are living in a Tron world.

I am excited to be living in this generation. I know that my kids will have super high tech gaming consoles and games. But, they won’t know how it all started. I grew up during the gaming revolution. I saw and played pong and donkey kong. I can draw upon the history that i witnessed and truly appreciate the newer high tech games.

Every body loves transformers. I know they are super cool and they even made a blockbuster Hollywood movie. But, what about the gobots. Remember the gobots? They were the poor man’s version. I’m big on routing for the underdog. I like gobots because they aren’t flashy. They don’t get the credit they deserve. When you think about it, gobots are just as good. They are robots that transform into other things. They have a silly name and the marketing team that backed them didn’t do a very good job.

If i was a gobot, i’d be like Cuba Gooding on the phone with Tom Cruise. I’d ride his ass like Zorro until he showed me the money. I would be chewing the ear off of my agent to get me more exposure. I’d tell my publicist to get me a name change like puff daddy. Am i ranting about nothing here. Does anyone remember my favorite robots? Do remember the GO BOTS!?!?

Another great strategy game on Nintendo DS is Microsoft’s Age of Empires. This game is similar to Advance Wars. The great thing about this game is that you can create games with maps that you want. You choose how many computer opponents and the degree of difficulty. After the campaign is over, you will still enjoy hours of fun with this game. You can find this game used for under $10 on ebay or other auction sites.

I like to play my Nintendo DS in bed. I have trouble sleeping so i need something to tire our my eyes. Age of Empires has a mini history of the major historical figures as part of the game. I found it to be a fun read and i enjoyed it. I think Nintendo should come up with DS books. I think they can break into the ebook market with this because the DS is so much cheaper then what’s available. That’s some food for thought.

One of my favorite Nintendo Games is Advance Wars. I loved Advanced Wars Dual Strike and currently, i’m having a ball with the new installment. I love strategy games. I like having to use my chess like brain to fight enemies. It’s a great way to relieve stress and take a break from life. I usually play my DS in bed. I am an insomniac so i usually have trouble sleeping. I know that you’re not supposed to do anything before you sleep, but i can’t help myself. I used to read, but that requires me to have the light on. With my DS, i can just play with the lights off. It doesn’t bother my wife and i can get a quick game going.

If you love strategy games, i highly recomment the dual strike series.

I remember reading an interview with George Lucas of Star Wars fame. He said that he planned to make this latter episodes of his great franchise all in computer animation. He said that he won’t be needing human actors. His movies will feature an animated cast. What about voices. I know that a lot of progress has been made with motion pictures. We can see convincing images up on the big screen. But all of the time, they are voiced by humans. Can we not replicate human voices? There isn’t a program that can duplicate and mimic real human voices?

I think it would be cool to have an image and sound that was created with computers. It kinda of like high tech frankenstein. That would be if you could do that. I remember Al Pacino made a sorry excuse of a movie that explored this topic.

I am starting to see more and more digital book readers. When i go out to Starbucks or Borders, i see a few of them. People are starting to buy these clunky digital books. Right now, Sony and Amazon are the major players in the digital book market. They have signed up with major book publishers to distribute books via electronic file format. They cost around $350 for the digital book reader. Books in file format fetch around the same price as their paperback counterparts.

I honestly think that this market only has a change if it goes the MP3 route. If people can easily convert any book into electronic file format, then this thing could take off. But, unlike mp3s you cannot easily transfer your books into readers files. Our cd collections were easily converted into MP3s. Or people downloaded them for free thru sites like napster. So the mp3 players took off. But digital books aren’t that plenty. Also, the distributers are keeping a tight lock on these files. Unless hackers can set it up to release a lot of public domain digital books for free, this market won’t catch on.

I don’t like Sony. It’s not because i’m a Nintendo fanboy. I don’t like Sony because they seem to be pretentious. It’s similar with the Apple Mac crowd. I love my iphone and i have two mac laptops, but i try not to be a mac snob. I like things that are pretty and useful. I like cool electronic gadgets that have good design. Sony meets these things but still don’t like them. I think they lost me during the digital revolutions. When things started converting to digital, i give up on Sony. Samsung and LG dominate the LCD stage. Apple kills in the MP3 department. Nintendo is willing the video game console war. But Sony is still alive and kicking. They won the BluRay vs. HDDVD war. If you can’t guess, i was a hddvd guy. I bought one last Christmas. Now, it’s just a slow loading dvd player. I didn’t pay that much for it so i’m not that bummed. I won’t be buying a bluray for some time tho. If HDDVD won, i would replace my collection of dvds with the high def ones, but since it’s bluray, i’ll wait till the prices drop a bit more. I’m sure by this coming Christmas, the blueray players will be heavily discounted.

If you are thinking about getting a bluray, don’t. Wait until Christmas and you’ll probably save like $200 bucks.